>> senate majority leader reid asked to negotiate. boehner says he will not bring anything to vote in the house until it has passed the senate. nearly every american will see a tax increase starting january 1st and unemployment benefits will expire for millions. >> ordinary folks do their jobs, they meet deadlines. they sit down and they discuss things and then things happen. if there are disagreements, they sort through the disagreements. the notion that our elected leadership can't do the same thing is mind boggling to them. it needs to stop. >> in washington, i'm stacy cohan. >> uncertainty over the fiscal cliff is having a ripple effect from washington to wall street. u.s. stocks ended the session on friday in the red for the fifth straight day. a triple digit loss for the dow which tumbled 158 points, the nasdaq lost almost 26 points.

the s&p 500 shed almost 16 points. and the gridlock in washington could help the current congress make history as the most unproductive ever. it's amazing. a review by the huffington post shows 219 bills have been passed this session, that's compared to 383 bills passed by the previous congress, and 460 by the group before that. now, to avoid the distinction, congress needs to submit about 100 bills to president obama over the next few days. something tells me they're not going to be able to do that. but there is one thing the senate has been able to agree on, getting aid to victims of superstorm sandy. by a 61-33 vote, the chamber passed the measure offering $60 billion in help. it heads to the house which must approve the bill by thursday or else the process has to start all over again. at least 113 people were killed when superstorm sandy hit in late october. the governors of new york and new jersey, the hardest hit

states have estimated damages at more than $78 billion with a "b,". the senate has approved a bill extending secret eavesdropping overseas. the measure's headed to president obama. he's expected to sign it. cnn's brian todd takes a closer look at this controversial foreign intelligence surveillance act. >> reporter: he ordered it just after 9/11, and it became one of the most controversial tactics used by former president george w. bush and his security team to fight the war on terror. the secret wiretapping without warrants of communications between u.s. residents and people overseas suspected of being terrorists. it drew fire because sometimes the communications of innocent americans got caught up. in 2008, the practice was authorized by congress but with limitations. a warrant is now required to target an american, including americans who are abroad. but it's still a hugely controversial program, and the

senate's just approved a five-year extension of it. it'll be signed by president obama. >> something with an enormous potential for abuse given the rather ugly history of the use of intelligent surveillance for illegitimate political purposes. >> julian sanchez believes there are still way too many people being monitored. members of congress say this classified program is also too secretive and they've pushed for more disclosure. >> i think we ought to know whether for purposes the amendment act, generally how many americans are being swept up under the legislation -- >> but there's won't be more legislation. warned shedding more light on who was being surveilled would destroy the wiretapping program, which she says has worked well. >> in four years, 100 arrests to

prevent something from happening in the united states. some of which comes from this program. so i think it's a vital program. >> conservative analyst cliff may says a wide dragnet is worth the cost. >> let's suppose you were a pakistani immigrant here, don't have your green card yet, you call your uncle, yes, you could get caught up and maybe your uncle is just a tailor, but if he's a member of the taliban, it's true, maybe there's going to be somebody in the federal government that thinks we need to ask some questions of this person. >> but if you're the person here talking to the uncle and you're completely innocent, you're still caught up in this. >> you're not caught up in the sense you're going to jail, not caught up in the sense that anything bad is going to happen to you. >> thank you to brian todd reporting there. we want to update you now on the investigation into the killing of two firefighters who were ambushed as they battled a fire in upstate new york on christmas eve. police have arrested the

gunman's neighbor. authorities say the 24-year-old woman bought a semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun for the suspect who later killed himself. she faces federal charges that she lied to authorities. spangler couldn't buy the guns legally because he was a convicted felon. he had them with him during the attack. let's talk about some weather because winter is just a week old at this point. >> what a winter it's already been. >> millions of people have been going, all right, i'm ready for spring at this point. >> yeah, scenes like this one in maine are playing out across the country as snow is on the ground and 69% of the lower 48 states. not over yet. not by a long shot. an additional 2 to 4 inches are expected from southern illinois to new jersey. it is winter. >> i suppose so. and you got a white christmas, hopefully, a few people did. >> flakes here and there. >> we have so much more for you ahead. >> here's a look has what tat w

coming up. still waiting, three days to go, and still no plan to avert the fiscal cliff. what will lawmakers do to save you from more taxes and fewer benefits? pain centers with no regulation doling out prescriptions and sending overdoses skyrocketing. they're called pill mills and in georgia, they're booming. the littlest ponds in a political fight. we'll talk to one woman whose hopes for adopting a russian son may have just been shattered. when you have diabetes...

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good morning, washington, d.c. the nation's eyes, yeah, they're watching you as lawmakers put together plans to avoid falling off the fiscal cliff. and those decisions will be made in some crumby weather. 40 degrees, rain and snow all happening there today. kind of fitting, i'm sure, for the mood. everyone's probably a little moody about now trying to get through the fiscal cliff negotiations. tick tock, we're three days away from possibly going off the fiscal cliff. it's our focus this morning. if lawmakers fail to reach a deal, that would mean spending cuts and tax hikes for 88% of all american households on tuesday. look at the number from the tax policy center. these numbers are interesting. some of the poorest americans who make up to $20,000 a year will have to shell out about $412 more to the irs, and

everyone earning more than $40,000 a year will be affected. if you make $40,000 to $64,000 a year, you'll pay almost $2,000 more a year, and if you make a little more between $64,000 to $108,000, that number jumps to $3,500. and anyone making more than $108,000, you'll have to give up more than $14,000. overall, the average american will pay more than $3,500 a year. the question needs to be asked here, will lawmakers be able to pull off a new deal before the new year? the managing director joins me now live from miami. you, dylan, were part of the bush administration a little more than a decade ago, which actually initiated this series of tax cuts, which later led to a near government shutdown in 2011 and then the current fiscal cliff battle. so i got to ask this, when you were all kind of sitting around, drinking coffee and coming up with this idea, did you, you know, see all this working out?

or did you even think about what the end of 2012 would be looking like? >> well, alison, let's look back a little bit and first remember how we got here. and, you're right, in 2001, we were worried about the president was worried about the storm clouds on the horizon in terms of the economy. and so we were looking for a fiscal stimulus that might be helpful to the broader economy and therefore you got the first round of bush tax cuts which reduced rates on -- marginal rates across the board. but most importantly brought the top marginal rate from 39.6% to roughly 36%. and what that did was allow top rate taxpayers who are often were individual citizens that run small businesses have the ability to have reduced tax rates and then as a consequence have that stimulus and have more capital to hire and to bring other people into the workforce. and that was the first leg on the stool, the second leg on the stool was the second round of tax cuts in 2003, which were to

encourage more savings and, of course, capital gains and dividends tax cuts, which were critical to other components of the economy. so, you know, we're here because those all expire december 31st, and the question is whether or not lawmakers will come to an agreement to extend those for brief period of time while they can look at broader fiscal policy or if they'll extend them permanently. some of us think they should do the latter. but this is a big question in washington these days. >> but when you were coming up with the idea, part of coming up with this idea, with the white board, did it ever occur to you that it could ever come to this? where you've got the cbo, the congressional budget office saying, wait a minute, if we go over the fiscal cliff, the u.s. can go back into recession. did anybody think about the ramifications like these tax cuts, these tax cuts and all this spending going on? >> well, i think that the question is, you know, how do we pay for the tax cuts.

and i think there are reasonable ways to do so. it just seems that our friends on capitol hill on both sides of the aisle have a difficulty in, you know, making necessary -- making necessary spending reductions to enable progrowth policies to persist. and that's an unfortunate thing. yeah, look, this was -- i heard a previous guest say this was a deal with the devil because it, you know, because it -- you got tax cuts now for ten years and a date certain for when they would go away. that's true, but we thought we were dealing with adult policy makers in washington and we thought that people would do the right thing with respect to fiscal policy. look, we wouldn't be in this circumstance, you know, president obama actually extended these tax cuts with the intent that washington would take a more reasonable look at how we can phase in fiscal policy in a way that wouldn't do

damage to the overall economy. and i think that's something we really have to be concerned about. you said earlier, you know, the average worker making 3,500 -- would see their taxes go up 3,500 should we go over the fiscal cliff. that's a significant impact to individual citizens. and so we should be very concerned about that and what that might mean to the broader economy, which some of us, i think, could put us in a mild recession next year. >> what is it with washington? what is it with our elected leaders they can't come up with a deal at this point? they have to wait to make it a cliff hanger. we saw this with the debt ceiling debacle last summer and now again. do they think this is a popular move? a good move? what's wrong with them? >> alison, you know, look, the real travesty of all of this is uncertainty. i know a number of your business guests will come on and say, look, we're corporate america, we want to hire, but we don't know what the tax regime's going to look like next year.

that's in and of itself sort of fiscally, you know, could cause a fiscal contraction because people don't want to spend cash. and we all know the consumer is the backbone of this economy. and if the consumer doesn't have confidence what the fiscal regime is going to be, they're liable not to spend. you asked the question, what's wrong? >> go ahead, go ahead. >> i'm sorry, you asked what's wrong with washington. look, i think, you know, we're coming to the realization in washington that we have to pay for the benefits that we give to our citizens in this country at some point. and it's a difficult message politically to deliver to your constituents. so i think until we can get leadership in terms of belt tightening in terms of making priorities in terms of what we want to pay for, in terms of what's best for the economy, we're going to continue to have these sort of fiscal-cliff type episodes.

another debt ceiling debate coming up early part of next year, as well. >> yes, we do. >> i hope we can get leadership. >> okay, thanks, dylan glenn, thanks so much. so what could the fiscal cliff mean for wall street and your retirement fund? i'm going to ask independent new york stock exchange trader in about one hour from now. all right. let's switch gears here. because after newtown, gun buybacks are making headlines across the country. and we're going to tell you how donors funded the biggest buyback ever in one connecticut town. i know. i'm will, and this is the nokia lumia 920 from at&t. it's got live tiles so all my stuff's always right there in real-time. it's like the ultimate personal assistant. but i'm me, and me needs handlers. so i hired todd to handle it for me. todd, gimme that hollywood news! what's happening on twitter? you're trending! yes! you can't have a todd, but you can have your own personal assistant. i guess you could call it todd. [ male announcer ] the new nokia lumia 920 with live tiles that deliver what you want in real time.

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19 minutes past the hour right now. you know it's been two weeks

since the horrific massacre at sandy hook elementary school. and as the nation continues to grieve over what happened in newtown, connecticut, it's also grappling with the issue of guns. no more so than in connecticut. more on bridgeport's largest gun buyback ever. >> william porter says he is done with guns. the elementary school shooting in nearby newtown, connecticut, struck a nerve. >> my wife cried. i was shopping, and we heard it while we were in the store. and she cried. you know, it's wrong. >> how are you doing? >> i'm good. >> porter is turning over his handgun to police in connecticut's most populous city part of bridgeport's largest gun buyback ever. and part of $100,000 donations, police are taking the guns no questions asked. >> every gun we take in is one less gun that has a potential to

kill our children. >> more than 100 guns have been collected in each of the first two days and are expected to be melted down. but with millions more scattered across the u.s., can buybacks like this one make a dent? >> these guns could've created victims. and we know that if we can reduce the number of weapons that are available through breaking into people's houses and grabbing guns, we are a safer society. >> bridgeport's police chief says an attempt to organize a similar gun buyback failed last year due to a lack of funding, but not this time. >> we've seen an outpouring from the community since sandy hook. in all manners. from, you know, from teddy bears to cash. and i think this -- this is part of it. i think people want to feel safe. >> for porter, a gun locked safely in his home ended up in the hands of his foster child who he says then handed it over

to a gang member. >> if that person would've did something to somebody else with that gun, it would fall back on me. and i don't have -- i'm 52 years old. i haven't had a criminal record all my life. >> police say that's how even legal guns can pose a danger. >> i don't know we're ever going to be able to disarm every bad guy here. but what we're doing is taking away the possibility. we're taking away the chance for a bad guy to get another gun. >> porter says he got lucky. >> it did go into the wrong hands, but i got it back and it's getting destroyed now. >> and now he has more cash in his pocket h. >> 75. >> thank you. >> but buybacks can get pricey with shrinking city budgets. for now, private donations are available, but as the memory of newtown recedes, many wonder if people will continue to confront issues surrounding firearms in their communities. david arioso, cnn, new york. >> thank you so much for the

report there. you know, still ahead, a round-up of some of this morning's headlines for you, including that winter storm that won't quit. >> i know. >> we're going to show you which areas can expect more snow this weekend. i'm sorry if you're in one of them. and, plus, many of you most likely going to be heading to a new year's eve party. but if you don't want to be that person who brings the frozen meatballs, going to show you how to make simple, delicious meals on a budget. that pink castle th. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain.

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bottom of the hour right now. close to 7:30. welcome back, everyone. i'm christi paul. hope you're having a good morning so far. >> and i'm alison kosik. thanks for beginning your morning with us. let's start in washington where it's down to the wire in the fiscal cliffhanger. three days left for the president and congress to make a deal and avoid those automatic tax hikes and spending cuts. obama met with top leaders from the both sides of the aisle in a rare meeting that lasted over an hour. afterward, he spoke about the importance of the deal for the u.s.'s still recovering economy. >> economists, business leaders, all think we're poised to grow in 2013. as long as politics in washington don't get in the way of america's progress. so we've got to get this done. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell also spoke after their

meeting expressing home that the weekend would bring a deal. >> we are engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the white house in the hopes that we can come forward as early as sunday and have a recommendation i can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference. and we'll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. i'm hopeful and optimistic. >> we're watching that story closely. protesters demanding justice for the young woman who has died now after she was brutally beaten and gang raped on a bus in new delhi earlier this month. our cnn reporters on the ground tell us today's demonstrations have been peaceful. police did tighten security. six suspects in custody including a minor and the bus driver and they're now facing